When to force a reset of the hopper

Sometimes the dialing queue gets into a state you just want to throw away — leads from a list you've since paused, settings you changed mid-shift, or a batch that no longer makes sense to call. VICIdial gives you a blunt instrument for exactly that: Force Reset of Hopper. It empties the queue when you save the campaign, then lets the system refill it from scratch. Useful, but worth understanding before you reach for it.

What actually happens

When you check Force Reset of Hopper and submit the campaign form, VICIdial wipes the current contents of the Hopper for that campaign. The hopper is just the short-term holding area for the next few minutes of dials — so clearing it doesn't touch your lead lists or anyone's call history. It only throws out the staged-up queue, nothing more.

A minute later, the background loader runs again and refills the hopper using your current Campaign settings — dial statuses, list order, filters, and so on. So a force reset is really a "throw out what's queued and rebuild it from the rules in effect right now" button. The leads themselves are never in danger.

Good reasons to use it

The clearest case is after a change that should affect what's being dialed right now, not five minutes from now. Say you just deactivated a list, narrowed your dial statuses, or fixed a bad Lead filter. The old, now-wrong leads may already be sitting in the queue, ready to dial. A force reset clears them so your new rules take effect immediately instead of waiting for the queue to churn through.

It's also a reasonable first move when the queue looks stuck or stale and you can't explain why. Wiping it and letting it rebuild rules out a corrupted-queue theory in about a minute, with no harm to your data. Think of it as a clean restart for one campaign's dialing list.

When to hold off

Don't force a reset just because the queue looks low — that's normal during the minute between loads, and you'll only create a brief gap where agents have nothing to dial. And don't reach for it as a fix for an empty hopper that never fills; that usually points to a deeper setup issue. Our guide on fixing an empty VICIdial hopper walks through the real causes, like no dialable leads or no active agents.

One more caution: if you've reordered or recycled leads recently, resetting and refilling can change which leads dial first. If sequence matters for your pacing or compliance, double-check how Lead recycling is set up before and after the reset so you're not surprised by the new order.

The short version

Force Reset of Hopper is a safe, fast way to make a settings change apply right now instead of next minute, and a quick sanity check for a queue that looks wrong. It does not delete leads, and the hopper refills automatically within about a minute. Treat it as a deliberate reset after a real change, not a reflex when numbers dip. For how the whole queue-and-pacing system fits together, see the VICIdial dialing strategies guide. And if hand-managing queues isn't how you want to spend your day, our managed plans handle the tuning for you — see pricing.